Data from the NASA research centre recently confirmed that a massive meteorite landed in the Great Australian coastline. The space agency said this unusual occurrence happened on Tuesday, 21st May 2019, off the coast of South Australia.
A NASA engineer, Dr Steve Chesley, confirmed that the meteorite may have been the size of a small car at the time the fireball hit the atmosphere. But it actually travelled at a slower speed than most asteroids normally would.
Footage of the fireball crashing towards the ground flooded social media the following day. A number of people were able to sight the crash across the Australian cities.
Our CCTV in Mount Gambier captured this otherworldly fireball at 10.46pm Tuesday. Just in case, we’d ask that Limestone Coast locals be alert for Alien Life Forms (including ALF himself) trying to hitch-hike to Earth Capital, and approach with caution. #meteor #weneedanALFemoji pic.twitter.com/iOgAOlw4cu
— South Australia Police (@SAPoliceNews) May 22, 2019
A bright flare of light, believed to be a #meteor, was seen streaking across #Adelaide sky shortly before midnight on Tuesday May 21. The Nine Network #Australia‘s SkyCam filmed the fireball lighting up the night sky before crashing down.#Astronomy #Nature #NaturePhotography pic.twitter.com/hFvkVyKF9B
— ✨ (@__Moon2Mars) May 23, 2019
Did you see what looked like a fireball of light across South Australia & Victoria around overnight?? Dylan captured this footage driving south on Commercial Road in Seaford Meadows approaching Seaford Road. #adelaide #fireball #shootingstar #meteor #southaustralia pic.twitter.com/LzkHauvaCY
— ABC Adelaide (@abcadelaide) May 21, 2019
Australia Meteor Report astronomer David Finlay says the data estimates show that the meteor landed in the ocean 400 km south of Adelaide.
Finlay, who runs the Meteor Facebook site, said:
“When you think of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, that was 15 kilotons. So the South Australian fireball was 10 per cent the explosive yield of Hiroshima. Imagine a Toyota Prado that’s just all rock entering the atmosphere; that’s essentially what’s happened here.
“In the four years that I’ve been running the Australian Meteor Report site, this is the biggest event we’ve seen.”
A Geoscience Australia spokesperson said that the estimated landing site was close to the South Australia and Victoria border. He said,
“The meteor on Tuesday night was observed travelling through the atmosphere quite close to the SA/Victoria border by our infrasound array near Hobart, as well as at a second infrasound array in New Caledonia.”
An analysis by the Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies at the California Institute of Technology explains the impact, location, time and amount of energy generated by asteroids and meteors that enter the earth. They use highly precise orbit solutions of the space objects to determine the risk of impact. They also support the Planetary Defense Coordination Office of NASA.
NASA explains that US government sensors have been monitoring exceptionally bright meteors that look like fireballs. However, people in parts of South Australia and Victoria have seen large flashes of bright light. They saw it at around 10:30 pm local time on Tuesday.
The agency subsequently confirmed that the bright light seen was, in fact, a massive fireball with impact energy calculated at 1.6 kilotons of explosive power. The fireball travelled at a velocity of 11.5 kilometres per second and finally landed in the Great Australian Bight just off South Australia’s coast.